"According to witnesses, the fighters began deploying last week, after the UN Security Council passed a resolution asking West African bloc ECOWAS to submit its plans for a Mali force." ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, consists of 15 African countries.

On Wednesday, African officials will meet in Ethiopia to discuss plans for an offensive by Mali's forces "supported by troops from neighboring nations and other African Union states — but not Western countries," the Associated Press wrote.

Diplomats told the AP that it could take months to obtain approval of a United Nations Security Council resolution that would authorize support for the African-led mission from the international community.

"This is actually a major threat — to French interests in the region, and to France itself," Francois Heisbourg, an expert at the Foundation for Strategic Research, told the Telegraph.

He added, "This is like Afghanistan 1996. This is like when Bin Laden found a place that was larger than France in which he could organize training camps, in which he could provide stable preparations for organizing far-flung terror attacks."

O'Brien agreed there are serious security risks.

"Al-Qaida in the Maghreb, which has activities in the area, is growing in both capability and ambition, and if we don't act there is a very real threat of further attacks in Africa, and eventually Europe, the Middle East and beyond," he said.

In March a military coup unsettled the already unsteady nation. Since then Islamist groups like Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have taken control over parts of the country.

One more thing…

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